Samsung outstanding leader in smartwatches, sold half-a-million in Q1

The smartwatch market might be fledgling and waiting for the first Android Wear devices to hit the market, but Google and partners better get a wriggle on, Samsung is already seizing significant market share.

Apple too is hotly tipped to be entering the sector later this year, with its much-rumoured iWatch, but by then it will have a fight on its hands to wrest control of the wrist from its South Korean buddy.

Samsung, according to a Strategy Analytics report, sold almost 500,000 smartwatches in a market estimated around 700,000 strong. That's 71 per cent of the market already. And it doesn't even take into account sales of the company's latest devices, the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit, which only went on sale in April.

Instead, those numbers relate to sales of the original Galaxy Gear smartwatch and the impact of the company's marketing around the Galaxy Note 3 has been mentioned as highly contributory.

What the sales figures do not account for though is the extremely high return rate of the original Galaxy Gear. Reports claim that as many as 30 per cent of devices sold were returned to shops after purchase.

Still, it proves that there's a market for wearables that are more than mere fitness trackers. And at the moment, it's almost all Samsung's.

Our senior ed of news and features has been a tech and games journalist for more than 27 years, and has been with Pocket-lint for over five. Rik has edited a number of videogame magazines in the past, was deputy editor of Home Cinema Choice, and his TV career included stints as co-presenter of Channel 4's Gamesmaster and Sky One’s Games World.